November 15, 1900] 



NATURE 



59 



attaches to the account recently given by Herr Sixta of 

 the precise manner in which the female Duckbill supplies 

 her newly-hatched young with milk. 



A special feature of the last year or two is the 

 application of American modes of collection and in- 

 vestigation to the smaller mammals of Europe and 

 Asia, with the result that a number of more or less well- 

 defined local races have been established in the case of 

 many familiar European species. Admirable examples 

 of this style of work are afforded by Mr. Barrett 

 Hamilton's studies of the Voles, Dormice, Squirrels, 

 Harvest Mice, and Variable Hares of Europe and Asia. 

 Attention may likewise be directed to the same gentle- 

 man's investigations with regard to the colour-change 

 which takes place periodically in many northern mammals. 



Till recently the Edentates of South America have 

 been regarded as a totally isolated group ; but the 

 material obtained in the Tertiaries of North America 

 has enabled Dr. Wortman to state confidently that they 



Fig. I. — A flightless representative of the Scale-tailed 'S,qa\'crA'i(Zenkerella 

 insignis). (From Mr. De Winton s fi.^ure \n ths Prouedinss of the 

 Zoological Society for 1898.) 



trace their origin from the Eocene group Ganodontia, as 

 represented by Calamodon and Psittacotherium. The 

 Rodents, too, have been brought into closer touch with 

 more typical mammals by the discovery of their near 

 relationship to the Eocene Tillodontia. 



As regards systematic work, the discovery of a new 

 Snub-nosed Monkey {Rhinopithecus bieti) in the upper 

 valley of the Mekong is as interesting as it is unex- 

 pected ; while of far more morphological importance is 

 the description of a flightless representative of the African 

 Scale-tailed Squirrels (Anomaluridae), for which the name 

 Zenkerella must be adopted. Of even greater interest is 

 Prof. Ray Lankester's discovery (not yet published in 

 detail) that the Bear-like /Eluropus of Tibet has no 

 close affinity with the Ursidije, but is a near relative of 

 the Raccoon-like Panda (yElurus). Neither have the 

 relationships of extinct forms been neglected. Dr. 



NO. 1620. VOL. 63] 



Major's discovery that the European Lemuroid Adapis 

 agrees in the structure of the tympanic with the Mala- 

 gasy Lemurs (and with them alone) being of great 

 significance. The same writer's description of additional 

 remains of the extinct Malagasy genera Megaladapisand 

 Nesopithecus throws further light on the specialisation of 

 the Lemuroids, and the apparent parallelism of the latter 

 to .Anthropoids. Here brief reference must also be made, 

 even if all his conclusions be not accepted, to Prof. 

 Hubrecht's investigations on the placentation of the 

 Lemuroid genus Tarsius and its relationship to the higher 

 Primates. 



Reverting to extinct forms, it has to be mentioned that, 

 apart from its other points of interest, the discovery of a 

 portion of the skin of a Ground Sloth (Glossotherium) in 

 Patagonia has revealed the unexpected fact that the 

 ossicles with which the hide of these animals has long 

 been known to be furnished are situated on its inner 

 instead of its outer surface ; the latter carrying a thick 

 coat of long coarse hair. 



The discovery some years ago that Wap'ti occurred in 

 Central Asia served to call attention to the similarity 

 between the faunas of that region and North America, 

 and the links between the two have now been drawn closer 

 by the description of a species of the American Jumping 

 Mice (Zapus) in Siberia. Another fact of importance 

 from a distributional point of view is the discovery of 

 representatives of the African Hyraces (Pliohyrax) in 

 the Pliocene deposits of Samos and Greece, and appar- 

 ently also in the Tertiaries of South America. And these 

 discoveries promise to give rise to much discussion as 

 to whether Africa or North America has been the main 

 feeder of South America in the introduction of its fauna. 

 With this is closely connected Prof Osborn's suggestion 

 that Africa has formed a great creative and dispersive 

 centre of its own. 



Mammals cannot be dismissed without a brief refer- 

 ence to the American " Report on the For-Seals of the 

 Pribiloffs," which has added very largely to our know- 

 ledge of those animals and the diseases to which they 

 are subject ; while, it may be hoped, it will serve eventually 

 to suppress altogether pelagic sealing. 



Turning to Birds, perhaps the most important work 

 (apart from the description of species and races, to which 

 it is impossible to allude in detail) that has been done 

 in England is by Mr. W. P. Pycraft, who has contributed 

 a number of valuable papers on avian osteology to 

 the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, as well as 

 communications to other serials dealing with the 

 general morphology of various groups of the class. Of 

 the former papers, the most important is the one 

 on the skeleton of the Penguins, in which it is shown 

 that these birds are less aberrant than has been often 

 supposed, and that their nearest relatives are the Petrels 

 on the one hand, and the Grebes and l-)ivers on the 

 other. But of even greater value are the saine author's 

 observations on the morphology of the Owls {Trans. 

 Linn. Soc, 1898), since they serve to indicate how many 

 alterations will be necessary, even in avian genera, when 

 pterylosis and internal characters are allowed their full 

 weight in classification. The remarkable feature of 

 "aquintocubitalism " in the bird's wing has likewise been 

 elucidated by Mr. Pycraft in a paper published in the 

 Journal of the Linnean Society for 1899 ; Mr. P. C. 

 Mitchell having also written upon the same subject. 

 The recent discovery of a new genus of Eagle {Pithe- 

 cophaga je^eryi) by the late Mr. J. Whitehead in the 

 Philippines is also decidedly worthy of mention. Of 

 wider interest is the description by C. W. Andrews, in the 

 Transactions of the Zoological Society, of the skeleton of 

 the remarkable giant extinct bird from the Tertiaries of 

 Patagonia, known as Phororhachus. This extraordinary 

 bird IS noticeable on account of the disproportionately 

 large size of its skull, more especially the beak ; and 



